I Survived!

Well I just survived the dreaded flight back from Hawaii to the mainland, which more often than not involves an overnight flight - ugh! Fortunately a nice (and small) couple from Washington, DC were sitting next to me and even nicer was that they gave me their window seat for my isle. I much prefer a window seat on a night flight as I can lean my head and even better, this was a window seat with no window but a wall, so I didn't have to deal with the window dent in, which can add an extra crink to your neck. I can assure you that what I got was not quality sleep by any means but I didn't wake up until the pilot came on 80 miles out of Phoenix indicating that we were starting our decent.A

I am now in Phoenix sitting in the US Airways Lounge (it is about 9am) and a lady ordered a beer - kinda early isn't it?!

My mom and dad got to save on a trip a to the airport yesterday, as my departure coincided nicely with my brother and sister-in-laws arrival. They were getting in at 9:45pm and I was leaving at 11:45pm, so my dad dropped me off at my check-in counter and then I went and joined my mom to meet them. Originally my mom had hoped that we would all overlap at for some time during this trip so we could have a family picture, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. Well we did overlap, but just for about an hour - long enough to say "hi', "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year" and then I was off. I know that they will have a fabulous time. Collin and Andrea are much different travellers than I am - where I am content to sit at the beach or by the pool for hours on end, soaking up the sun, they will be off doing every know activity to man on the island - they do make the most of their vacations! I know that they will have fun!

So my family does not spend a lot of time all together - in fact, I think the last time all 4 of us were all together for any length of time was probably when Collin and Andrea got married in Maui in 2006 -don't think anyone has died since then or got married and there were parts of that trip that were not all too positive for me, so really, why would I want to replicate that again?! You see, I come by my selfishness naturally - my vacation time is very important to me. I work very hard, and at times have a very stressful job, so I don't want my holiday time to be stressfull and we all know that family time can be stressful. Thus me leaving as Collin and Andrea were arriving. I had hoped that we would overlap by a day, but that didn't work out. I had contemplated changing my departure by a day, however I wouldn't get home until the afternoon of NYE and since I am going to Kimberly for NYE, that wasn't going to work. Plus, flights were sold out - I did check - I am selfish but I will still put in some effort ;-) In any event, my mom isn't going to get her family picture like she had wanted and part of the reason for this trip. It was their 40th anniversary this year and my mom was wanting some sort of group photo - guess us all standing together at the airport wasn't going to cut it!

So this ends another trip. As mentioned, heading down to Kimberly for NYE and then the travels back and forth to Fort Mac begin again the 2nd week of January - gotta keep amassing those aeroplan points and status miles, so I can continue to travel like a princess. And then it looks like Belize at the end of January. Until then. . . .